A Potentially Troublesome Sentence
by Sandra Phillips
Summary: "She would make a good wife." Wait, wait, did he just think that? Nope. He said it out loud. Crack!ish ShikaTen, T for Shikamaru's bad mouth.


A/N: Hello readers who may or may not be there! I finally decided to write one. Just randomness that I wrote when I finished early in my English class today. ShikaTen is one of my favorite pairings, but this isn't very well done, I know. Any reviews with tips would be welcome.

Originally, this only consisted of the first section. Because I'm a hopeless suckers for reviews (one pushes me off the deep end, and *bam* suddenly a one-shot becomes more) I decided to add on to it. There were five very short chapters, which I decided to merge into one.

**/cackle/** MERGE, MY CHAPTERS! MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA! **/cough/**

Anyway. I hope you enjoy this!

* * *

Brown hair. Brown eyes. Not an annoying, arrogant overachiever with social problems and the emotional capacity of a teaspoon. Not an annoying blonde with a very high voice and a stalking issue. _Definitely _not wearing spandex. Not an excellent ninja, but not a terrible one either. Not pretty, but not ugly. Actually, sorta… cute. But it was her averageness that caught his eye.

"Shikamaru!" Tsunade-sama's sharp voice cut into his thoughts, and the young Nara shook himself out of his reverie.

"Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"Do you understand the mission assignment?"

"Perfectly," Shikamaru drawled.

Tsunade eyed him dubiously, obviously sure that he hadn't been paying enough attention to her debriefing. Still, she nodded. "Good. Both of you go pack your things. Leave as soon as possible."

As Shikamaru turned to leave, he caught his new partner smiling at him, and his mouth opened. "You would make a good wife," he informed her in a matter-of-fact tone.

The whole room fell very silent and very still as everyone froze. Tenten didn't know what to make of random… compliments, she supposed… from boys she had never really met before. She'd never been complimented by _any _boy. Shikamaru stopped in his tracks, rerunning over the words he had just said. Tsunade just blinked, her mouth open, in a vain attempt to make some sense out of the words that had just come from her top chunin's mouth.

Shikamaru swallowed, wondering how, for the first time he could remember, he had stopped thinking. Albeit, only long enough to spout a potentially troublesome sentence, seeing as his mind was already spinning a hundred ways to escape the current situation. The least troublesome: act like it was purposeful.

Shikamaru laughed, and Tsunade's jaw dropped another inch at the foreign sound. He flashed a lady-killing smile to the teen still staring at him as if he had suddenly sprouted antlers and danced the hokey-pokey.

"A guy can dream, right?" He turned back to the Hokage. "But then again, that's against shinobi law, isn't it, Tsunade-sama?"

_Unnatural, _Tsunade thought, her eyes wide. _Shikamaru is not… flirtatious. He doesn't laugh. He doesn't smile like that! _She recovered enough to form simple words. "Uhh, yeah," she said dumbly.

"Guess I can't marry you," Shikamaru said to the girl, sounding regretful. He walked to the door. "Sorry… uh, Tenten, was it?"

Most of the shock had faded by then, and Tenten offered him a shaky smile. "Do you often propose to girls when you're not even sure of their name?" she teased.

Shikamaru stopped, his hand on the doorknob of Tsunade's office. He turned back with an eyebrow raised. "Don't know," he said honestly. "Never proposed before. You just seemed like a person I could like." He shrugged and turned back, walking out. He called over his shoulder, "I'll see you at the edge of the village, ten minutes, kay?"

"Yeah," Tenten quipped. "See you 'round!" She evaporated from the room in a small puff of smoke, totally natural.

Tsunade hung her head in her hands, shock abating. _Young people._

…_She didn't even punch him._

* * *

"You ready to go?"

"Yep."

"Good." Shikamaru turned around and had walked all of half a step before stopping and turning back to the girl. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck in a nervous motion, something he had acquired from his dad. He smiled tentatively. "Uh... what was the mission again?"

Tenten smirked victoriously, hands on hips. "I knew you were too busy admiring me to focus."

The chunin Nara's cheeks turned a charming shade of light pink. "I wasn't admiring you, at all. I was just… thinking about the clouds…." _Damn troublesome woman. Damn troublesome sentence. I go through all that effort to act, and _this _is what it amounts to..._

Tenten snorted. "Okay." She paused just long enough to show what she thought of _that_ lie. "We're delivering a scroll to the Feudal Lord."

Shikamaru's eyebrows raised an inch. "Really?" That was a jonin level mission. Anything to do with the Feudal Lords was automatically a B-ranked mission... if not higher.

Tenten just shrugged nonchalantly, reading the Nara's expression. "That's the mission."

"What does the scroll say?" he couldn't help but ask.

Tenten gave him a look that all but said, "Do you think _I _know?" Shikamaru coughed.

"Right. Not our business. Let's go."

They walked out of the city in companionable, if slightly awkward, silence. After a moment, Shikamaru turned again. "Uh, why is it only two of us? Shouldn't there be four people on this mission?"

Tenten rolled her eyes. "You really weren't paying attention. And Tsunade-sama says you're her number one chunin, I can't imagine how..." She chuckled.

Shikamaru blushed and stuffed his hands in his pocket, angrily grumbling, "I'm not usually like that, you know..."

That shut her up. Shikamaru considered wondering why, and passed off trying to understand the female psyche as too troublesome. "So?"

"We need to be able to blend into Japan," she said. "A large group of ninjas would only attract attention. Plus, she figures that if the two of us are nonchalant enough, we should be able to deliver this scroll without any complications. ...And, uh, one more thing..."

Shikamaru nodded, understanding the Hokage's motives. "Hmm?"

"We have to act like a couple to blend in the best."

Shikamaru paused in walking for a whole 0.5 seconds, then continued. "Okay."

Tenten was blushing. "You don't care at all?"

The boy shrugged. "Why would I? It's just another mission. I've acted that part many times before, though I can't understand why Tsunade-sama constantly makes me. I think she enjoys it. No, I'm sure of it. She must know how _troublesome_ I find acting. I bet she sits up there in Hokage tower, scheming about new missions that she can send me on in which I have to hold hands with annoying girls with high-pitched voices-" He stopped when he realized that Tenten was quiet, looking at the ground as she walked. "What?"

The girl looked up with a smile. "Nothing!" she said briskly. "That's a relief, actually. I was worried you might be embarrassed. You wanna speed things up?" She didn't wait for an answer, instead jumping up onto a tree branch above their heads.

"Whatever."

* * *

"God, I hate Japan. So troublesome."

"Shut up and look happy," Tenten growled under her breath, squeezing his hand with a pressure that threatened to break multiple bones. Shikamaru grudgingly complied, clamping his mouth shut and twisting it into a small smile.

"You call that a smile?" the girl currently latched onto his arm hissed. "You look like you're in pain." She squeezed warningly.

"I _am _in pain, you damn troublesome woman," he muttered, feeling as the muscles in his hand protested the weapon mistress's admirably strong grip.

"Yeah, but you look like, constipated pain. Quit grimacing."

All of this was said with the sweetest, most innocent smile plastered on her face. Shikamaru adjusted his features, and the girl beside him fell silent. For 3 and a half seconds.

"You do know where you're going, right?"

"Of course I do," Shikamaru said, his voice starting to show his annoyance. "Believe it or not, I _have _met the Feudal Lord before. I know where he lives."

"Really?" Tenten, for once, actually sounded as innocent as she looked.

"Yes," Shikamaru said shortly.

"Why?"

"I said shut up."

"No you didn't."

"Well, I'm saying it now."

Suddenly, she leaned against him. Shikamaru gave her a sidelong look that said, 'WTF?', while the rest of his face conveyed tender lovingness for all the world to see.

"What?" she whispered, after a long second. "There was someone watching us. So why did you go see the Feudal Lord?"

"Because I had to deli-" Shikamaru stopped short and glared at her. "That's not going to work on me."

She smiled sweetly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't. You're womanly distraction techniques are wasted."

She stopped and stood in front of him, grabbing his other hand. She made a pout that would have sent a lesser man to the infirmary, but Shikamaru remained stoic. After a second she sighed and went back to walking. She muttered something under her breath, and Shikamaru strained to pick up her words: "Guess it was just a fluke."

"That troublesome sentence in the Hokage's office? Yeah, sorry, but that's all it was."

She flinched guiltily. "Quit listening to me."

Shikamaru smiled. "Ah, those are words I have longed to hear from a woman all my life..."

"Shut up."

"... Overused."

He felt the tip of a kunai against his back, and had a moment to wonder how she had managed that when her hand was still holding his. "I said, _shut up._" Her face betrayed nothing of her killer nature. Shikamaru wisely shut his mouth, and the threatening weapon disappeared into whatever dark depths it had mysteriously apparated from.

After what seemed like a ridiculously long and painful journey in which his mouth was forced to stay in a smile - God, it was like going to the gym for your lips - they finally reached the Feudal Lord. Shikamaru only had to pull out his shinobi headband from the backpack he was wearing to get past the first guards, and the second pair recognized him – or more accurately, his lazy slump and pineapple ponytail – immediately.

He had let go of Tenten's hand as soon as was humanly possible, worried that the damage she had rendered to his skeletal and muscular system might be irreparable. Tenten interpreted it differently.

"You wait out here," he instructed in his lackadaisical drawl. She nodded and leaned against the wall, her face an unreadable mask, and started examining her fingernails like a typical female. Shikamaru carefully slid the door to the Feudal Lord's audience chamber open, stepped in, and closed it behind him. He lowered himself slowly to his knees and touched his forehead to the floor, oblivious to any emotions his partner might be feeling just outside the screen.

"Shinobi-kun." The Feudal Lord's voice was cool and collected, if slightly indifferent.

Shikamaru got straight to the point. "My Lord. I have a message for you from the Hokage."

"Ah, do you? Very good, hand it over."

Shikamaru sat up and pulled off his backpack. He rustled through it for a moment, absently wondering why he had brought so many supplies for a short week's trip. When he found the offending object, he pulled it from the dark depths of his bag and held it out. One of the Feudal Lord's servants peeled himself from his camouflaged position against the wall and took the scroll from his hand, giving it to the man seated on the cushion in the center of the room with a small bow.

"You may go," the Lord said without any pretenses of hospitality. Shikamaru liked that about him.

Shikamaru bowed, got up, and left without another word. He didn't say anything to Tenten as he walked by, just giving her a glance that communicated, _We're done,_ and they both left the building in silence. When they were outside, Shikamaru stretched with a yawn that could rival any cat's. "Ah, so troublesomely formal in there. The air... it's stifling..."

Tenten giggled, and a surprised Shikamaru lowered his arms with a small smile. "I wanna take a nap," he said suddenly. "Let's go to the park."

Tenten just shrugged, silently chastising herself for laughing when she had been upset with the boy (she wasn't sure why, exactly, she just remembered she was supposed to be...) and followed him as he walked away.

* * *

Tenten was left standing as Shikamaru sprawled out on the bench, using one arm as a pillow. He muttered something in his sleep and nuzzled against his shoulder, and Tenten sighed.

"What a rude boy," she mumbled. As an evil and slightly cruel thought occurred to her, a mischievous smile appeared at the corner of her lips, and she suddenly sat down on his stomach.

"Ughh...!" Shikamaru sat up, the air knocked out of him, to find the reason why his peaceful sleep had been so rudely interrupted. Seeing that it was only his annoying partner, he put away the kunai his ninja instincts had automatically drawn and unceremoniously pushed her off the bench. "Get off, troublesome woman," he said shamelessly. "I'm trying to get some well-deserved sleep here."

Tenten stood up, brushing dirt off her clothes. "I wanna sit down," she whined, sounding - much to Shikamaru's loathing - just like Ino about to go on a rant.

"Shh!" he frantically ordered, trying to stop the mounting onslaught of crying and whining and high-pitched squeals before it got too far along and its momentum was far beyond mortal's ability to rein in. Grudgingly, he bent his knees and pulled his feet back three inches.

Tenten stopped, her mouth comically half-open, and looked at the space for two seconds, then turned her eyebrow-raised stare on him.

"What?" Shikamaru said. "I'm sharing. Be happy."

Tenten opened her mouth, presumably to chastise him, then shook her head and sat with a huff. "Three inches," she mumbled under her breath. "Three goddamn inches..."

Shikamaru tuned out the rest, laying his head down again. "Shut up..." he commanded sleepily.

Tenten, in retaliation, pushed him off the bench.

"Flkghhg!" Shikamaru fell with an incoherent mumble/scream (supposedly a scream, but it was too troublesome to raise his voice any higher than usual). He glared at the damn troublesome woman, who was laying down on her stomach and stretching out on _his _park bench with a yawn and a contented smile. He tried to protest, but it only came out as a jumbled, "Mfljksdjrf!"

Tenten opened one eye. "What was that?"

He swallowed in mounting fury and forced his mind to work normally, moving past the insult of the girl _pushing him off the bench he was trying to _sleep on,_ and did she not understand the concept of _courtesy? "Gettoff!"

She regarded him with her one-eyed stare for a long second. "No." She closed her eye and turned over, giving Shikamaru a lovely view of the back of her head.

"That's it," he growled. "It is so on, troublesome woman."

"Don't even think about pulling out a kunai, we're supposed to look normal."

_"_But you pulled out one earlier!" he protested.

_"_No one saw," Tenten rallied, without turning. "_You _didn't even notice until it was already at a vital point."

_...Damn. _Shikamaru had to admit she had him there. It was basically a veiled threat: if he wanted to keep the fact that she had beat him so easily a secret from everyone else in Konoha, he would surrender. Sighing, he put them away, and instead, put his fingers into a triangle. _Shadow mimic technique._

"What...?" Tenten found herself sitting up, though she was sure her brain hadn't ordered her muscles to do so. A moment later, she discovered that Shikamaru was sitting next to her with a smug look on his face. Tenten glared. "Lame. Shadow mimic technique. How predictable."

"I only care about its efficiency," Shikamaru drawled. "And thankfully, that is high."

"You can't sleep either," she said. "So, at least you don't win either."

"Wrong." Shikamaru scooted closer to her, and she was forced closer to him, until eventually their heads rested on each other. He sighed contentedly. "Comfortable..." he mumbled.

Tenten glared into space, since she didn't have the ability to turn her head. "Damn you."

Shikamaru just muttered wordlessly, nuzzling against her. In roughly two seconds, he was asleep - which was something she had thought was only possible in comics and corny movies. Roughly five seconds after that, Tenten realized that the Shadow Mimic Technique was released. But, the sun was warm, and the he was kinda comfortable...sorta... and besides, they had to act like a couple anyway...

Soon, they were both asleep on the park bench.

* * *

The trip back was both awkward and dull for Tenten and Shikamaru, respectively. They returned to Konoha in near record time - the record second only to Gai-sensei when he heard that Kakashi was being forced into a ramen-eating contest - because of how little they talked. Finally, Tenten stopped just outside of Konoha, jumping down to the ground at approximately the same place that she had leaped into the trees on the way out of the city. Shikamaru landed lithely beside her and was started walking, hands in his pockets in his usual lazy pose. Tenten chewed her lip for a moment in silent deliberation, then reached out and grabbed his sleeve. Shikamaru turned around, looking at her with bored eyes that labeled her _troublesome._

Tenten was unfazed by it after a week with the shinobi and stared him down until the Nara blinked. Finally, he asked (or rather, said,) "What."

She stared, trying to remember the words that had been blazing in her mind only moments ago and wondering why they had suddenly deserted her. She managed a small, "Um."

Shikamaru grumbled and turned around again, muttering something about women and non-stop talking and a distinct difference in brain sizes between genders. However, the sight of his pineapple head must have triggered her memory, because she blurted, "I was just thinking that we'll be at Konoha soon."

Shikamaru stopped, turned around, and blinked in a disturbingly owl-like way. "Yeah." In contrast to his last question-turned-statement, his tone made the word a statement-turned-question.

Without thinking, Tenten blurted, "So, this is the last chance you get to act like my girlfriend."

And a moment later, thought, _What the hell was I thinking. _Shikamaru seemed to be having a similar thought process, as one eyebrow was cocked so high it nearly touched his zigzagging hairline. Tenten shook her head. "Uh, you can just... forget I said that... It's not like I was trying to flirt with you or anything... Oh god, this is getting awkward." She felt her cheeks turn bright red and hot and knew her embarrassment rising at such a rate she would be reduced to nothing but an incoherent, spluttering lunatic in only minutes. "You can just kill me now," she deadpanned. Really, saying something like that to _him, _that childish, rude, lazy ass little boy...!

Shikamaru seemed to be considering it, giving her a look that seemed to wonder if she had suddenly gone stark raving mad. "Why would I _want _to act like your boyfriend? I told you before, I hate acting. It's too troublesome."

Tenten shook her head, pressing her fingers to her temple and squeezing her eyes shut in a vain attempt to erase the words from the air between them with telepathy and sheer will power. "I said, just forget it."

Shikamaru regarded her with a sideways stare and started walking again. "Oh, you mean, like how you forgot about me spitting out that idiotic sentence during the debriefing." His tone was sarcastic, seeming like it was meant to annoy her and at the same time sounded nothing but bored.

"Fine, fine." Tenten followed him and held up her hands in defeat as she walked by his side. "It was unfair of me to keep teasing you... all week... but I'd never had a guy say anything remotely complimentary to me before, and no, I do _not _count _youthful _as a compliment, under any circumstance, spoken by any person." She sighed, realizing that she was blabbering. Or what it incoherent spluttering? She had to reduce her embarrasment, and fast, or the lunacy would quickly join her symptoms. "I'll make you a deal, then," she said. "You forget I said it, I forget you said it."

Shikamaru considered it. (Though, because his mind could choose the best option in under a second, Tenten thought he had simply jumped on the chance to lock all of his memories of her away in a sad box and stuff it in a dark corner somewhere - and she wouldn't blame him one bit, because she planned to do the same.) "Okay."

"Then it's a deal." Tenten stopped and smiled as she held out her hand. When Shikamaru went to shake it, she pulled it back with a thoughtful look, causing the boy to growl and come up with a hundred different possible words that would come out of his troublesome partner's mouth next. "On second thought," Tenten added, "let's just forget the whole mission. Yeah?"

"Whatever." He shrugged, deciding that it was actually a favorable sentence when compared to others his mind had contrived.

Tenten grinned and took his hand, giving it a hard (though not bone-breaking) squeeze and shaking it once. Shikamaru (with his usual expressionless face) turned around and started walking once more, deciding to take the last leg of the journey at a slower and more relaxing (aka, lazy) pace. Together, the two returned to Konoha, one happy and one bored, and they parted ways at the gate with nothing more than a cheerful/indifferent goodbye.

However, even though neither noticed, they both looked over their shoulder at their partner's retreating form with a small smile.

* * *

**Please review!**


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